{"id":104612,"date":"2026-05-22T17:51:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T12:21:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=104612"},"modified":"2026-05-22T17:51:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T12:21:20","slug":"niti-aayog-report-on-ease-of-doing-research-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/niti-aayog-report-on-ease-of-doing-research-development\/","title":{"rendered":"NITI Aayog Report on Ease of Doing Research &#038; Development"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The NITI Aayog Report on \u201cEase of Doing Research &amp; Development\u201d highlights the current challenges in India\u2019s research ecosystem and suggests a wide range of reforms to improve funding, governance, and human resources in R&amp;D.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>NITI Aayog Report on \u201cEase of Doing Research &amp; Development\u201d Key Highlights<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The NITI Aayog\u2019s \u201cEase of Doing Research &amp; Development\u201d report highlights deep structural, financial, and human resource challenges in India\u2019s R&amp;D ecosystem along with major gaps in funding efficiency and institutional capacity.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Low R&amp;D spending in India<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: India\u2019s Gross Expenditure on Research and Development (GERD) is only 0.6%-0.7% of GDP, which is much lower than China (2.6%), USA (3.4%), and South Korea (5.3%).<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Declining Effectiveness of R&amp;D Spending<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Although absolute R&amp;D allocations have increased over time, their real effectiveness has declined due to inflation, expansion in the number of research institutions, and reduced per-institution funding.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Low Grant Approval Rates<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: R&amp;D funding agencies report less than 10% grant approval rates, indicating extreme competition and underfunding of research proposals.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Skewed Distribution of Research Funding<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Around 80% of funding under the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) is concentrated in IITs, despite its mandate to support broader institutions, particularly state universities and regional research bodies. The report also red-flagged\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">that ANRF does not have suitable representation from outside the IIT system.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Duplication and Overlap in Funding Agencies<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Multiple government bodies such as DST (Department of Science and Technology), CSIR (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research), and ANRF fund similar research areas, leading to overlap and inefficient use of public resources.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Delays in Fund Disbursal<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Research grants are often delayed by 3-6 months, affecting project continuity and causing instability in research work.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Rigid Procurement and Financial Rules<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Cumbersome procurement procedures, \u201cuse it or lose it\u201d budgeting norms, and rigid financial compliance systems significantly slow down research activity and reduce institutional flexibility.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Institutional Bottlenecks<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Complex procurement systems, rigid budgeting rules, and lack of autonomy in institutions slow down research execution.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Weak Research Infrastructure in State Institutions<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Research infrastructure, equipment, and funding remain heavily concentrated in elite institutions like IITs, while state universities and smaller institutions lack adequate facilities, widening regional disparities in research capacity.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Severe Human Resource Deficit in R&amp;D<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: India has only 262 Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) researchers per million population, far below Switzerland (5,552), UK and USA (4,821), and China (1,585), indicating a major shortage of skilled research manpower.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Low Post-Doctoral and Fellowship Support<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Post-doctoral support remains limited to about 2,500 fellowships annually, and although over 20,000 PhD fellowships exist, delays in disbursement and irregular payments weaken research stability and morale.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Retention and Brain Drain Challenges<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Researchers face low financial incentives, limited career progression, heavy teaching workloads in universities, and lack of autonomy, resulting in difficulty retaining talent within India\u2019s research ecosystem.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Weak Industry\u2013Academia Linkages<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Poor collaboration between universities and industries restricts the translation of research into commercial innovations, reducing the societal and economic impact of R&amp;D investments<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>NITI Aayog Report on \u201cEase of Doing Research &amp; Development\u201d Recommendations<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The NITI Aayog\u2019s \u201cEase of Doing Research &amp; Development\u201d report recommends a comprehensive set of reforms to strengthen India\u2019s R&amp;D ecosystem by improving funding, efficiency, and human resource capacity.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Raise GERD significantly<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Increase Gross Expenditure on Research and Development (GERD \u2013 Gross Expenditure on Research and Development) from 0.6% to 2% of <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/gross-domestic-product-gdp\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>GDP<\/strong><\/a> in the next five years through higher public and private investment.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Attract private sector investment: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Develop a collaboration-based incentive framework to encourage industry participation in R&amp;D and strengthen public\u2013private partnerships.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Improve tax incentives for R&amp;D: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Provide higher tax deductions up to 125% for CSR contributions towards research and innovation activities.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Restore and rationalise GST support<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Bring back the 5% GST slab for R&amp;D procurement (earlier available till June 2022) to reduce costs of research inputs.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Speed up approval and funding process<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Ensure clearances and proposal processing within 6 months, reducing delays in starting and continuing research projects.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Fix funding inefficiencies<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Address skewed and inadequate funding by ensuring better allocation and reducing over-concentration in select institutions like IITs.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Reduce duplication across agencies: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Minimise overlapping work among DST, CSIR, ANRF, especially in similar domains like hydrogen energy and carbon capture.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Strengthen ANRF governance<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Improve functioning of Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) by ensuring better representation beyond IITs and reducing duplication with other agencies.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Improve fund flow mechanism<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Reduce delays of 3-6 months in grant release and ensure smooth, timely disbursement of research funds.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Reform budgeting and procurement system: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Remove rigid rules like \u201cuse it or lose it\u201d budgeting, simplify procurement, and ensure flexibility for researchers.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Boost research manpower: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Increase post-doctoral fellowships by 20% annually to strengthen human resource capacity in R&amp;D.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Create Vigyan Nidhi: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Establish a streamlined funding architecture called Vigyan Nidhi to improve efficiency in funding and manpower retention.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Strengthen monitoring and governance: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Improve policy implementation through better monitoring, evaluation, capacity building, and administration systems in R&amp;D sector.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NITI Aayog report on Ease of Doing Research and Development highlights challenges in India R&#038;D sector, funding gaps, low research spending, and key reform recommendations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":104599,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[786],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-104612","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-general-studies","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104612"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104612\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104619,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104612\/revisions\/104619"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}